Capital Metro 's Creative Money Scheme

The writer of this article Stacy is president of T. Stacy & Associates and chairman of the Downtown Austin Alliance board of directors. So I feel that her position is a credible one. Stacy feels that using federal grants to close a short-term operational gap at the expense of long-term capital improvements is irresponsible. The Downtown Austin Alliance, her organization asks the Capital Metro board to invest in the long-term health of the region's transit system by using federal stimulus dollars to fund capital improvements, as they committed to doing when applying for the grants.
It seems very simple and cut and dry but Capital metro wants to divert part of this funding and use it in a way that it was unintended for;as opposed to rate hikes. I feel this diversion of funds from their original intentions has America on a slippery slope. It is the whole buy now pay later reasoning. The rate increase has become a hot topic and people are balking over the prospect of fares going up a quarter. What about the problem of the millions of dollars put into the red line that isn't even operational? The amount of ridership that line could produce when it's finished should help close the gap. Capital metro will continue to be plagued by problems as long as they keep making decisions like this.
Although I support the writers opinion I thought the article was rather weak in it's basis to support the argument. The writer could have used examples how this approach has failed in other circumstances. Also, many readers are unfamiliar with the way government grants work. She could have given a brief explanation on the type of grant they received and why they were able to divert the funding from it's original intentions.